The Old Man’s Words of Wisdom

As our pilot lined up with the snow below as we were about to land on a glacier on Mount McKinley in Denali National Park, I could not help but wonder at the beauty and yet the desolation of the Alaskan wilderness around us.

As the skis on the plane skidded on the icy glacier, two dots suddenly became two mountain climbers that had been taking a break and were camping on the glacier. I began to think that while a solitary life without phones, television, and easily accessible food may show individualism and ruggedness, that practice of law by its very nature cannot be a solitary endeavor. As lawyers we grow by our interaction with our clients, other lawyers, and judges. We cannot, by and of ourselves, practice good law when we isolated.

For much of my career, I was a solo practitioner. I practiced by myself, but at the same time I developed an informal network of other lawyers in my county to call on to bounce off ideas and seek advice to make sure I wasn’t missing something obvious like the proverbial “missing the forest for the trees.”

What I am seeing, however, is that through technology, my informal network has expanded so that through the use of mail lists like Solosezor my state solo e-list, there can be a sharing of ideas, so that if you choose to practice as a solo, you don’t have to form your own informal network. The key, however, is that you make use of whatever network you find works for you.

If you haven’t, try Solosez o r contact your state bar association to see what lists they have available. As John Donne said four hundred years ago, “No man is an island entire of itself.”